X-Books Solicitations: September 2018

[WhiteQueenEmmaFrost]

https://twitter.com/cullenbunn/statu...62682728177669

This is a massive mistake and I hope editorial realise what they've done fast.

I hope he writes a tell all. This is twice that a book of his has been cancelled....although I'm not sure how sorry I feel for him. How much of Blue was him and how much was editorial interference?

[Knives]

https://twitter.com/cullenbunn/statu...62682728177669

This is a massive mistake and I hope editorial realise what they've done fast.

Please guys who have time and consideration show your thanks to him for this long and big journey whether you're a fan of Magneto, the O5 or Uncanny X-Men.

[cc008]

Please guys who have time and consideration show your thanks to him for this long and big journey whether you're a fan of Magneto, the O5 or Uncanny X-Men.

Bunn's Magneto, Uncanny X-Men, and all things Deadpool were wonderful. You'd think Jordan White would be aware of that and keep him around. He's obviously not writing whatever main book comes next.

[DamianWayne1]

I’ll grab Astonishing, Iceman, X-Classified, & Extermination in singles, and I’ll pick up Blue, Red, Domino, Exiles, Return of Wolverine, X-23, Old Man Logan when they come out in trade.
Hopefully they’ll relaunch Uncanny X-Men with a somewhat classic cast (Wolverine, Jean Grey, Storm, Iceman, Rogue, Archangel, etc.) in October, as well as a school-focused book!

[Purplevit]

Feel bad for Bunn. He is a very good writer.

[Hush]

https://twitter.com/cullenbunn/statu...62682728177669

This is a massive mistake and I hope editorial realise what they've done fast.

It's a shame but I'm not really surprised especially after the announcement of Asgardians of the Galaxy. I wish him good luck for his next serie !

I thought Kraven killed Punisher in the OML universe?

Yeah it's strange but when you think about it Castle has a tendency to come back from the dead as a supernatural being in the main universe and in alternate realities. When he killed himself he became an angel, when he got beheaded and cut into pieces he came back as a Frankenstein monster and recently he became the cosmic Ghost Rider after being killed during Thanos's invasion so maybe he just got better lol.

But seriously judging by the cover he doesn't seem completely human.

[scouse mouse]

https://twitter.com/cullenbunn/statu...62682728177669

This is a massive mistake and I hope editorial realise what they've done fast.

While I'm not sorry to see Blue and the 05 go, I whole heartedly agree that booting Bunn from the X books is a huge mistake! He is an excellent writer who deserves to continue to tell his X-verse stories.

[spirit2011]

https://twitter.com/cullenbunn/statu...62682728177669

This is a massive mistake and I hope editorial realise what they've done fast.

seems like editorial cut Bunn short again. I really wated to see his plans for Blue.
Dammit

[Drakeon]

Hope leading a classic Xforce lineup?

Looks like I will have to jump in on Extermination now.

[Maestroneto]

Hope leading a classic Xforce lineup?

Looks like I will have to jump in on Extermination now.

That is Jeen.

[akiresu_]

I hope he writes a tell all. This is twice that a book of his has been cancelled....although I'm not sure how sorry I feel for him. How much of Blue was him and how much was editorial interference?

Well, I think this board was unfairly critical of certain elements, only to watch Bunn play them out and attribute the chain of events to their own criticism/pressure. It's not unique for these boards to overweigh their sense of importance in a book's audience, but particularly wrt the depcition of Emma, Havok and (to a lesser extent) Polaris, fans seemed to be noticeably malicious. Looking at Havok and Emma, we can see Bunn's continuity-heavy approach to storytelling (at least in the X-Verse) manifest; he wrote both characters in line with how they had previously been written, whilst taking them back to somewhere recognisable.

Emma sees a great character journey throughout Blue, taking her from absolute evil before the series (IvX), to somewhere recognisably sinister but not altogether abominable (Emma's plan in Secret Empire is dodgy, but not unsympathetic- outside of Cyclops, she also, very literally, does nothing wrong. This arc did need more issues though- and creators on other books who respected/were aware of what Bunn was doing), leading into the subversion of the O5s image of her (in Cross-Time Capers, building off the short "evil exes of Cyclops" story), then bringing her back into a complex, protagonist role (in MotherVine) culminating in Hellfire Hunter (still to be seen how this pans out). Yet, the reaction from fans was to shrill at Bunn for not disregarding Emma's most recent continuity and character development, then when Bunn bore these stories out, to scream victoriously that they had somehow changed his mind on Emma. Likewise with Polaris, the issue where Lorna was possessed by AUMalice and the issue where she defiantly breaks free were consecutive. Yet some fans are adamant that it was their campaigning that meant the character wasn't merely possessed (on this, I'm pretty sure Malice was going to possess Jean, just Poison-X threw those plans off- Lorna provided a quick and neat solution to an outstanding plot point).

Havok didn't have the same vitriol produced on his behalf, but again people hated to see him portrayed in line with Axis, but Bunn created an organic solution for the character that exists through continuity. This kind of storytelling had existed in Bunncanny, particularly with Sabretooth and Archangel, but that time it seemed to be the creators who didn't care for his continuity-based work, rather than fans. Soule and Pak destroyed the work Bunn had done, leaving the only real successors as Strain (people disliked her M, but it was a continuation) and Bunn himself. Where Bunn respected the work of recent creatives (On Emma and Havok), his work has never seen such respect. I think there's an element that fans actually don't like continuity as much as they are characterised as doing so; rather fans are interested in canonicity, which can be far more personal and fluctuating.

On the quality of Blue itself, I don't think there has been a non-Venom issue that has been outright bad. The opening salvo (#1-3) is still probably one of the best single stories of ResurreXion and MotherVine, similar (I'm also optimistic about Hellfire hunter, if Bunn and Molina bring the A-Game of those early issues), so I don't think we can really put Bunn at fault for the reputation Blue has garnered.

But the editorial/Bunn question does highlight where some of the issues of the series were coming from:

One) the convoluted and ill-conceived crossovers. Now was this Bunn, editorial or a mixture? I'm tempted by the latter. I think he was asked to pitch Venomized (or Poison-X) and affected his Blue plans accordingly. Likewise, Mojo Worldwide was a Bunn story, but I don't think it was ever intended to be a crossover story. Sounds like editorial interference, which affected the pacing of Blue as an overall series (it is notable that it isn't collected as a Blue trade, but as a Gold one, despite featuring important beats such as Magneto's reveal back to the living and Bloodstorm's cementing into the team).

Two) A serious issue with flow. The first 6 issues could, with some slight amendments, read as a continuous stream of thought. Not one story, but something more united than we got. What happened with Blue was so many issues were stop-and-start. It made the storytelling feel needlessly unnatural, but also highlighted the stange structure of MotherVine; set-up is paid off by a different cast.

Three) Playing favourites. This is down to the cast not being entirely inspiring, but Bunn really gave up on a lot of his character beats early on. We never got to find out about the warren/Laura break-up, or any more details on Iceman/Romeo. Yes, partially because of the aforementioned crossover issue, but also because Bunn's pacing didn't allow for much downtime- and when it did, Bobby and Warren weren't the ones Bunn was interested in (#11 is a great issue for this kind of character work- Blue needed more issues like this, particular at the #29 slot- yet this too, I think, goes down to editorial- Bunn would have known his imminent cancellation by this point, so could not afford a decompression issue).

The latter two are issues down to Bunn as a writer, sure. But they aren't what soiled the book or made parts of it unsuccessful. In fact, Blue was enjoyable despite those criticisms. I think the negativity towards Blue does come down to antsy fans producing poor word-of-mouth, when a great amount of Blue has been really good stuff. Blue was not the right book for Bunn- he tried his best with what he had, but, as we saw in MotherVine, Bunn is better at telling specific kinds of X-Verse stories. This is, absolutely, an editorial mistake. They should have let Bunncanny emerge as something new, or given Bunn Gold/Weapon X.

Now it all ends, in quite unceremonious fashion, as he is given no new X-Book, and signs off on characters and concepts that were never really made his. I don't think it is representative of the great work he's done on these books, ever since Magneto's solo. Hopefully the final issue has a nice Magneto epilogue that Bunn can really make work for, what is potentially, his last work on the franchise.

[DDM]

Even with Gold/Blue ending these solicits are pretty boring. Feels like we’re biding time until the new books.

[Celestialbodies]

Place your bets for the next flagship writers, pretending Bunn and Kittyheim don't count
- Brisson
- Cates
- Rosenberg since he can't have enough books
- Soule (X gon give it to ya)
- Zub
- Hickman (like that's happening)
These seem to be the most likely

They seem to have a lot of faith in Taylor, especially with how casually he's been able to pluck several characters from other books.

https://twitter.com/cullenbunn/statu...62682728177669

This is a massive mistake and I hope editorial realise what they've done fast.

Agreed on the Bunn sentiments, he's been my favorite writer if the X-men the last few years alongside Taylor. But at last, of course their putting him on the "Avengers" side of things, I think if he was given the cast of Mags, Lorna, Emma, Alex, Danger and few select others he could have written an excellent main or side title. Been following him since at least the Mags solo, pity someone so consistent and unafraid of continuity is off a franchise that could use him more.

[akiresu_]

Even with Gold/Blue ending these solicits are pretty boring. Feels like we’re biding time until the new books.

I agree. For a moment it felt like we were back in the dark, All-New, All-Different days. 3 teams, 2 solos and an out of continuity mini if we were lucky.

[ArminTamzarian]

I don't think he's going to kick the bucket, but I do think that he's going back to the wastelands. I had a feeling that was coming when Brisson open that plot with the Maestro.

I can see OML ending with #50 with the creative leaving and Logan getting back all the regenerative powers he started with in issue #1 but I think returning him to the Wastelands for a new series would just be cruel. Also do the Wasteland even still exist after Civil War 2? I'd rather have a new OML comic either set in a more realistic, day to day world or doing the opposite and having him travel in the multiverse with the O5 in one of Reed Richard's inventions. I'm just not sure having Old Man Logan and the Maestro as frienemies in the Wastelands will create enough story ideas for a long run.